Forest Haven
by Inna-Barnes
Summary: Created by Annastasia Smirnov: When simple plans to skip school goes terribly wrong, Inna learns how much she wants a normal life and how much her father truly cares, with her partner in crime along for the ride.
1. Chapter 1

"Where are we?" Inna said as she kicked a pebble on the winding dirt road. "Forest Haven." Ann said as she tried to kick the same pebble as to be as cool as she thought Inna was, but only ended up falling on the ground. "You're suck a dork!" Inna laughed as she helped her up off the ground. Ann didn't care. She couldn't help but smile. Before she met Inna, she would visit Forest Haven on the weekends sometimes, just to get away. " I can't BELIEVE you haven't brought me here before." Inna said as they walked up the long straight path into the building. "It's just kinda, personal. I came here as an escape and stuff to get away from all of the kids who made fun of me, or the adults that said I was never going to be good enough. I was waiting for the perfect moment and person to bring here." " Wow, and that's me?" Inna said a little teary eyed. "No it's Pablo. Yes you, I swear you can be so stupid." "Way to ruin the moment." Inna said as she pushed on the big rusty door and walked inside the damp room.

Ann ran toward the stairs and started running up to the second floor as Inna looked around. Old broken glass and bottles littered the floor, cobwebs all over the chandelier and furniture in the room. Water stains on the floor, showing at one point it must have flooded in the building. Suddenly, Ann came sprinting down the stairs and jumped off the last five onto the floor almost slipping her haste of running towards Inna. "What the Fu-" Inna tried to say but before she could finish Ann cupped her hand around her mouth. "Shhh!" Ann said as she looked into the direction of the stairs. Suddenly Inna could hear big foot steps coming from up stairs. The foot steps seemed to shake the whole building, causing dust to fall from the ceiling into their hair. Ann took her hand of Inna's face and looked at her, she couldn't believe what she saw. That sly smirk that always got her in trouble. "There has to be at least four men." Inna said quietly padding towards the stairs. "I counted five." Ann said following her. "Even better!" Inna exclaimed a little to loud. They heard a hoarse voice travel down the stairs.

"Did you hear that?" one man said to the other. "Here what?" "I don't know, it sounds like it was coming from down stairs, like a little girls voice." "Little girls voice?" Another man piped in "Are you scared of a little girl?" they all started laughing. "Well no I just…" "Come on let's go interrogate this guy and get all the information he has, slit his throat and leave." "Ok." They walked away towards the south wing of the hospital until Ann and Inna could no longer hear they're foot steps in the corridors.

"Who do you think they are?" Inna asked Ann as she turned to where she was moments ago. "ANN?!" Inna screamed, but she was no where in sight. "Over here!" Ann yelled as she slipped back into the room to the left of the stairwell. "I feel like I'm going to break right through the floor. It's old and nasty up here." "Yeah its gotten damaged through the years, but it's in pretty good shape in the West wing, but that's for later. We need to follow those guys." Ann said as Inna jumped up on the patient examination chair.

"Well then let's go" Inna said as she jumped up with a look of disgust on her face as a cockroach went across the wall. "Hold on, you won't get very far." "What do you mean?" Inna said as she came to a halt at the door. "You don't even know where you are going. Besides I now a passage way right here that leads through the walls, come on. Watch out for roaches though. They are every where." Ann remarked as she took the framed picture of the female anatomy off the wall and sat it on the floor. She opened a little door behind it and walked through it. Inna's look of disgust on her face couldn't keep Anne from giggling. There was only about 4-6 cockroaches on the walls, but in Inna's eyes it was about 40-60.

They crept through the passage, careful to not disturb the other trespassers, if they only knew what lay on the other side of the door from whence they discovered. "Its right here." Ann whispered as Inna caught up. "Ugh! I cant get it open." "Let me through I'll kick it down!" Inna yelled, not even worried about getting caught anymore. Ann moved out of the way and Inna with all her might kicked it open.

"Coast is clear." Inna bellowed back at Ann. Who was now struggling to get all the cobwebs out of her hair and put it in a pony tail. "Son of a bitch." Anne mumbled as she tripped out into the hall. "This way Inna, I can hear them ove-" but Ann was interrupted by a loud deep manly scream coming from down the all. "Please, I don't know any thing, I, Please… no!" It was the voice of a man that seemed so familiar, but it was hard to tell as the man's mouth sounded muffled by blood. They heard a gunshot ring through the halls, so clearly it was as if the gun was in they're own hands. "Agh!" The man's voice rang out, he was hurt but it wasn't fatal. Inna knew she had to act quickly, because he would soon bleed out.

I'm not about to run into a room full of I don't know how many KGB but I have to help. "Hold on Ann." Inna whispered as she went behind the corner pulling Ann along side her. "Hush, they might hear us. Don't be alarmed but I have a gun." "Sorry if I offend you but I kinda expected it." "No, I'm flattered, it shows how well you know me. Now hold on, I'm going to shoot he wall over there at the other end of the hallway and when a couple guys come out I'm going to aim for their knee caps. I may not succeed because I'm bit a it rusty but I'll try. Okay?" "Okay, I'm ready."

BANG!

"What was that?" "Go and see, both of you." Two men trudged out of the room looking the opposite way of Inna and Ann. Bang! The first shot missed, BANG! The second shot hit one man in the back of the leg. Bang! The other man turned around BANG! Another, this time hitting in the center of the knee. "Before the other guys get out here grab both of they're guns, I'm out of ammo and you need one." Inna said searching her coat pockets for stray bullets. "Here." Ann "Follow my lead, come on."

"What's all the ruckus out here?"

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Inna getting back into he swing of things, injured 4 guys, while Ann shot blindly and hit one guy in arm. Things happened so fast that they caught them off guard. They only got out a few shots before they dropped to he ground like flies.

3 / 3

But before Inna could say or think any thing at all she saw her father. As Inna saw her father there, she knew he was badly injured. She felt a surge of anger runs through her veins. She was going to get them, she was going to hurt them, if she had to, she would kill them. She could feel a pain in the pit of your stomach… Fear… but she didn't have time for that now, she had to take care of business.

"Dad!" Ina cried as she dropped the gun ran towards him and fell to her knees. Anne helped her untie the strings wrapped around his hands, feet, and abdomen. She checked his pulse…faint…but he had one. Ann took out her phone and called 911. They were on they're way. He was going to be okay. She called Steve, she called her dad, she called Natasha, she called everyone. They were going to wait at the hospital. The ambulance arrived and said he was in critical condition, and would have to be heavily monitored through out the night.

Apartment 234 1:49 A.M.

Inna sat awake in her bed, replaying the moment she had to leave her father at the hospital. It was about 9:30pm and Steve was going to watch her and stay over. She started towards the door, about to turn the handle. She looked behind her, Steve's hand on her shoulder, she saw Natasha sitting in the chair by the hospital bed. She had fallen asleep holding her fathers hand not but 20 minutes earlier. She really did love him, she thought to herself. Her father had not waken up since she and Ann had carried him out of Forest Haven together only hours before. He had opened his eyes, only faintly, looked up to her and spoke, "Inna, Inna…love Inna." Before he fell back into the coma. Shortly after that the paramedics arrived. Would these be the last words he would utter to her? She could feel a hot tear roll down her cheek. But just one…


	2. Chapter 2

_Inna 4:45am  
_

 _Cold…so cold. I could feel my stomach turn at the thought of him coming home today. After 15 days, 5_ _hours, and about 45 minutes, (I was keeping count) he would be home. The pain grew stronger as I_ _remembered the last words he said to me. Like knife In my side I felt it again. Stronger. Harder. Faster._ _Feelings? It didn't matter. I just, for the first time in my life, wanted my dad home and for everything to_ _go back to normal. Just normal. "Yeah normal, you wish you sick monster." I heard it again. In my head._ _My own head. That voice that keeps telling me that I'm a monster, or worthless, or useless. Not again. It_ _won't win this time. "No!" I yell in the darkness of my bedroom. Ann… I want Ann. Where is she? Stupid!_ _Don't you know she is in her room. In her bed. Feeling better, safer, less vulnerable than I'll probably ever_ _feel again...  
_

 _Ann 4:50am  
_

 _I woke up… I tried to remember the dream, it was also a memory…of days back at the Girls Home.  
_

 _"She's never going to live up to Miss Kleblin's expectations. I mean she just isn't smart enough. Just_ _stupid really." the said to the other girl above her bunk. A girl. A girl Ann never talked to because all she_ _did was spread gossip. Even though she has made her best effort to stay away from her, never talk to_ _her, she still seems to know a surprisingly good amount about Ann. But she is only scratching the surface,_ _the surface of a deep hole covered long ago. Ann doesn't even know or care about most of the stuff_ _hidden and buried deep inside It, but she is sure the girl thinks she knows. "Just stupid really." She_ _repeats in her head, feeling vulnerable and worse by the second. Why? Why me? I wonder what Inna is_ _doing right know. How she feels. Is she thinking about me...  
_

 _. . . . . . .  
_

 _Barnes residence 10:37am  
_

 _Inna awoke at a sudden shift In the atmosphere. "Ann!" Inna yelled gleefully as she got dressed quicker_ _than normally. She ran to the kitchen to see it was not Ann but Steve pouring some cereal. No. Not one,_ _not two, but three! "Dad?" Inna blurted out. "No, I'm sorry chickadee. The third bowl is for Sharon. She_ _came over-" "Sorry Steve, but I really don't give a shit!" Inna yelled out as she ran out the door "Hay_ _langua- you know what, why do I even try?" Steve murmured under his breath.  
_

* * *

2 / 3

 _Inna Forest Haven 11:26am_

 _Inna Forest Haven 11:26am  
_

 _"Ann!" Inna managed to shout through the tears she was choking back. "Ann!" she managed to_ say before she sat down in one of the old dusty chairs she had seen previously the last time she was here. Inna pulled up her legs to her chest in a cradle position and found herself dozing off.

"Inna, Inna! Wake up! Come on! Wake up!" Ann yelled as she shook Inna's shoulders. Inna lifted her dreary head up to see Anne's dark blue eyes staring back at her. "Why? I was sleeping well for the first time in days." Inna lied. She was having nightmares again. Just like last night and the fifteen nights before. She always had the same thing happen, it was like clockwork. She walked into Forest Haven, looked around and suddenly she could see her dad on the ground. Dead. Murdered in cold blood. The body still warm. Except this time it was different. She walked into Forest Haven, but it seemed different in way she couldn't explain. She saw her father on the ground dead, but this time as she kneeled down to mourn the body she heard a shrill laugh. Looking up to see herself standing over her and what used to be her father. Smiling. Smiling, but not like her smile, not the smile she gave Ann when something fun was about to go down, and would stay up late on the phone just talking, giggling, and cracking jokes. No, not at all. It was cold; a cold, dark, twisted smile that pierced into her soul like a knife. Just in time Ann woke her up, thankfully.

"I don't believe you." Ann said coldly, "Why would you lie to me?" "It's just something you wouldn't understand. Its nothing, really. You can trust me." Inna explained as she stood up and brushed it all off. But Ann wasn't sure she could trust her. Those eyes of hers held secrets that they would never tell, and that was okay, as long as those eyes never lied. With was exactly what was happening right now.

"Inna, I came here to tell you something that I overheard Steve and Sharon talking about." Ann said as she took a seat on the old couch, and motioned Inna to do the same. Inna complied and sat across from her on an old love seat. "What is it?" she asked impatiently "Well on my way to your apartment I overheard Steve and Sharon talking, and I kinda eavesdropped. I realized you couldn't Ave been home because of how loud they were talking. About you." Ann said with a smirk.

"It's the reason why he was here in the first place. Your father, he's beginning to remember, and he has told Steve almost everything." Inna looked a little shocked but intrigued, so Ann kept on. " Inna, there was a tracker on your school bag, and your father found it as he was cleaning the living room." "Stupid! How could I have not seen it!?" Inna yelled, more to herself than Ann. " He traced it back to the KGB, and it was being tracked from Forest Haven…" Ann continued, trailing off towards the end as Inna suddenly stood up and started pacing around the room. "Oh sorry continue." She said as she realized Ann was staring at her.

Steve explained that your father confronted them, and in a twist of fate, they somehow over powered him. They interrogated him for a while, but never got anything out of him. All they wanted to know was information about you Inna. No matter how hard they hit him he never uttered anything besides " I'm not sure." Never giving you up." Ann explained, as she finished she looked to Inna who had a single tear running down her face. Ann continued, " He said he blacked out a few times, but it only made him want to fight harder. His face bloody and bruised he finally fell unconscious, when he awoke to the two of us carrying him to safety, he wasn't sure if he was going to die or not, and…" Ann choked up as she was about to cry. Looking to Inna who had now sat down, her face red and in deep thought. About what?

"He wanted the last thing he ever said to be that he loved you Inna. Even if you give him a hard time. He still loves you, and would gladly die for you." Ann finished as she stood up. "Thanks." Inna managed to choke out hiding the tears, a sign of weakness. They headed towards the door, and left in silence.

On the bus ride home Ann remembered, "One more thing I forgot about." She said now smiling. "What?" Inna asked as she looked out the window. "He should be home by 6:00 tonight. Around dinner, we're having tacos." "How could you forget something like that?" Inna quickly asked astonished she turned to face her. "I wanted to save it for when you stopped crying." Ann said with a smile, crossing her legs and turning away. "You're cheesy as shit." Inna said as she playfully pushed Ann. "you know you love it." Ann said with a smile."


End file.
